Parkwest gunman Abdo Ebsa’s family offers condolences, seeks explanation

by ocean

KNOXVILLE — Family members of the gunman who killed one woman and wounded two others before killing himself outside Parkwest Medical Center last month have publicly offered their condolences.

Speaking through local attorney Dan Morse on Thursday, the relatives of Adbo Ibssa expressed their sympathies to the victims, as well as the greater Knoxville community for the April 19 fatal shooting.

Abdo Ibssa  Parkwest Shooting

Abdo Ibssa Parkwest Shooting

Police said Ibssa, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Ethiopia, was suffering from psychological problems and believed that a computer chip had been implanted in his body by a surgeon during a appendectomy in 2001.

Authorities added that the gunman’s family had committed him to a mental health facility in February.

Morse said he wasn’t certain of the facility where Ibssa was treated, although he understood that the man had been released after three days.

Ibssa’s relatives, who live in Atlanta and in Texas, are still seeking an explanation from the facility for why he was released, Morse said.

Parkwest social worker Rachel Wattenbarger, 40, was killed in the attack. Ariane Guerin, 26, and Nancy Chancellor, 32, both were wounded.

Ibssa was a graduate of Emory University in Atlanta and in 2008 graduated from the Saint James School of Medicine, Bonaire, in the Caribbean, according to the family.

In the midst of a divorce, Ibssa suspended his medical residency and was operating Al’s Market and Deli on the corner of University and 5th avenues at the time of the attack.

“The family of Abdo Ibssa wishes the world to know that, before his psychiatric troubles, Mr. Ibssa was a good, professional and hard working person,” the family said in a statement. “In attending medical school, Mr. Ibssa dreamed of helping poor patients in Ethiopia.”

Source:Knoxnews

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